In our house summertime means ice cream time. At any given point throughout the summer months you can find at least one carton of Edy’s Slow Churned ice cream in our freezer, and yes it has to be Edy’s, when it comes to ice cream we are completely brand loyal. On most days you can find two or three containers. After all, we each have our favorite flavor.
The only trouble with storing multiple flavors is the tendency for each container to form those nasty ice cream crystals, and the only thing worse than not having ice cream in the fridge on a warm, summer evening is finding crunchy ice crystals inside an otherwise tasty carton.
A few weeks ago I was reading All You Magazine and came across a tiny little blip about preserving ice cream. Simply put the article suggested covering the top layer of ice cream with a thin piece of saran wrap. The plastic wrap prevents air from hitting the ice cream, thus keeping those awful ice crystals at bay.
We reuse the same piece of plastic wrap each time. Just before putting the lid back on the container, simply press the plastic wrap on top of the ice cream and along the edges so that air can’t get in contact with the ice cream.
Since we started using this technique we haven’t seen a single ice crystal on our ice cream. In fact, nearly one month later the ice cream is as delicious as the first time we opened the container.
This is brilliant! I am definitely going to try this. Those ice crystals are the worst!
Your ice cream lasts a month? In this house ice cream lasts for 2-3 days…
I guess if you have a couple of the flavors, I could see it lasting that long. Or at least a couple of weeks. Still, it’s a good tip that I’ll remember.
I, too, am crazy for Slow-Churned. Here, Edy’s is Dreyers. Never understood why they bother splitting it like that. At any rate, I love love love the Chocolate Fudge Chunk, which I maintain is more tasty than a lot of the regular (full fat) chocolate ice creams out there.
Oh, and just to be evil, Rite Aid has the things for $2.99 this week. If, that is, Rite Aid exists where you are.
Simply turning the carton upside down in the freezer also works.
I just eat the ice cream faster. 🙂 I suppose that’s not very frugal though since I then have to buy more ice cream! (Oh no!)
My ice cream never last’s long enough to collect crystals! Kudos to you for self control. 🙂